condensation in winter?

This is my first winter camping and using the furnace for the first time. I found that two days into camping the 4 interior walls are wet, is this normal? or do I have a leak in the roof? It rained one night and the temp went to 50 to 30's in NC / Camper is a 2015 heartland 22 foot RBK. Everything works fine, however I had to have a new awning installed, could this installation cause a leak?

Hi msgtp,

Condensation on every wall sounds like it's from warm, humid air inside the coach meeting cold exterior walls. You might try running a dehumidifier.

Your owner's manual should have some info about condensation, causes and prevention, but basically it will get much more humid inside with the heater going, two or more people breathing and your cooking etc. I understand that a humidifier will help but the biggest help will be to keep a vent or window cracked. In most cases it will be more humid inside than outside the trailer. Use your vent fans when cooking. While you might worry about having heat escape you will suffer more damage from humidity than the cost of a little propane.

There should be several prior threads with more information.

Another thing to help keep the humidity at a minimum is to be sure that you use the vent fan when you shower.
Showering will add a ton of humidity unless you evacuate that humid air.

Peace
Dave

A dehumidifier took care of the problem for me. When I wake up in the morning I can still see out the windows. It is a 30 pint GE I bought at Walmart. I'm sure others would work as well.

Great topic and let me add this- Wife and I took our new to us Sundance to Florida a few days after Christmas last month. We left Pittsburgh at around 20 degrees and drove to Orangeburg, SC at 65 and rain to sleep at the Cracker Barrel. When we got into the coach everything, and I mean EVERYTHING was soaked- Walls, ceiling, windows, fridge, even the canned goods in the pantry! I had to take a microfiber and dry as good as I could while running the fantastic fan and opening all of the windows. Imagine after 10 hours of driving in cold and rain all I wanted to do was sleep it off, but had to deal with this instead. Made for an absolute miserable evening, Even the bedding was damp. I'm not sure if riding with the vents open would have helped but usually I have the roof vents cracked when traveling but didn't this time because it was SO cold when we left home.
Major lesson learned.

My guess is that it would have but something to try to see for sure.

I know that most here do not dry camp but those of us that do do not have the option of a dehumidifier since we are running almost totally on 12V and also are conserving battery. So it is important for those that do not have that option to keep a vent cracked, a window open and to run fans when cooking or showering.

msgtp said:

This is my first winter camping and using the furnace for the first time. I found that two days into camping the 4 interior walls are wet, is this normal? or do I have a leak in the roof? It rained one night and the temp went to 50 to 30's in NC / Camper is a 2015 heartland 22 foot RBK. Everything works fine, however I had to have a new awning installed, could this installation cause a leak?

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It's likely just condensation. We experienced same a number of times when the temperature drops significantly during a rainy period.
Nothing you can do but dry out using heat and ventilation or a dehumidifier. Whatever is best for your camping situation.


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Thank goodness we have never experienced this to any great degree. When reading manuals about using the furnace for heating it is suggested you keep a window or vent slightly opento help ventilate and hold the dampness down.

I should have said too, if you're cooking with a propane stove top or the oven, propane is not called LP for nothing. There is a lot of liquid in propane that has to exhaust somewhere. I'm always reminding the DW to run an exhaust fan when cooking.


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One other point....remember if you travel with a vent open. You create a vacuum inside the trailer. So any place that can let in moist air can make the issue even worse.

In 2010, when we spent our first winter in Breckenridge, CO, we came prepared with a dehumidifier. But we found out immediately that our problem was that the interior air was too dry, rather than too humid. We have to run humidifiers round the clock. Even doing that, there's almost no condensation. I'd guess it's the sidewall insulation and dual pane windows helping us. The only place that ever gets damp is around the head of the bed.

danemayer said:

In 2010, when we spent our first winter in Breckenridge, CO, we came prepared with a dehumidifier. But we found out immediately that our problem was that the interior air was too dry, rather than too humid. We have to run humidifiers round the clock. Even doing that, there's no condensation. I'd guess it's the sidewall insulation and dual pane windows helping us. The only place that ever gets damp is around the head of the bed.

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Now that you are in Colorado you've probably noticed that any time you touch anything . . . you get zapped!

Forgot to mention. If you have condensation, you'll want to leave an air gap at the head of the bed or your sheets and mattress will get soaked. We've had a little bit of moisture freeze on the sides at the head of the bed, so I got a couple of very inexpensive small cookie sheets from Walmart and drilled air holes. The bottom goes against the mattress on the side of the bed to allow air circulation.

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JohnD said:

Now that you are in Colorado you've probably noticed that any time you touch anything . . . you get zapped!

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John,

Oddly enough I don't get zapped. But Ann gets zapped all the time. And she also used to get zapped in Texas.